Idaho State Police officially open new building

It’s been a long time in the making and now it’s finally done. The new Idaho State Police district five building in Pocatello is finished.

On Monday, ISP held a ribbon cutting and open house for the public to show off the new facility.

ISP broke ground on the building in May 2016 but some delays put it a little behind schedule to finish in spring of 2017. But now the building is complete and ISP is all moved in.

“What a great day it is for ISP and what a great day for Idaho,” said Idaho State Police Colonel Kedrick Wills, as he spoke at the ribbon cutting ceremony.

After remarks talking about the need for a new space and the gratitude to all who were involved in helping make it happen, state legislators and representatives, along with ISP officers, cut the crime scene tape to officially open the new building.

Before the new facility was built, ISP was spread across three different buildings in Pocatello. That made it tough for employees and citizens both to get what they needed.

“We’re really excited to move into this building,” Wills said. “What this does for the state police and the citizens of Idaho, is it co-locates all of the services the Idaho State Police offers in the Pocatello area. So it’s a one-stop shop if you will for the ISP and for the citizens who need our service.”

It combines investigations, patrol, training and forensics all into one. Inside you’ll find patrol and investigations offices, monitored interview rooms, a fitness and training room, break rooms, even a small library on forensics and other criminology information.

One of the most exciting features for ISP is the new forensics lab. This lab has more space and state-of-the-art equipment to help ISP with its forensics workload. ISP has a lot of forensics and lab work for other counties and other agencies. In fact, Wills said about 88% of the forensics they do is not for ISP. So having this larger space will be beneficial for the scientists and help make them more efficient in getting results back to those agencies who need them. The new building also features some storage space for both forensics and evidence.

District 5 commander Captain Eric Dayley said they’ve only been in the new building for a short time but he’s already seeing a difference its made in communication and efficiency to be under one roof.

“We’ve discovered things about it that we didn’t even realize we could do with it,” Dayley said. “It has exceeded our expectations. The synergy, the cooperation, the sharing of information has gone even better than we imagined.”

Dayley said ISP is proud of the building, excited to work in it, and excited to share it with the public.

The new building is located next to the old ISP patrol office at 5255 South 5th Ave.

It cost $6 million to build and was completely funded by the state.